NORTHAMPTON — Sondra Peron said she was groggily heading downstairs for breakfast early one Sunday this month with her wife and toddler when she found her yard in flames.
The 8-foot-tall shrubbery beside her car — about 10 feet from her home — was ablaze, she said, pointing to the blackened stubs that remain. “We were lucky the wind was blowing this way,” she said, pointing away from the home.
For Ward 3 residents like Peron, who endured sleepless nights at the same address on Bates Street during the time fires were being set by Anthony Baye more than five years ago, the early-morning scene March 12 brought back “ugly” memories.
“It’s disturbing, to say the least,” Peron said.
The fires Baye was convicted of setting, including one during an arson spree Dec. 27, 2009, that claimed two lives, terrorized the Ward 3 neighborhood over the three previous years, and talk of a new serial arsonist in their neighborhood awakens old fears, many say.
Northampton police and fire departments responded to a construction site across the street from Peron’s home on Friday night — where 11 saucer-sized holes were burned into the lining of a fence — marking the sixth incident in a string of what officials refer to as suspicious fires.
Click here for a map of recent fires.
According to a police statement, the incident in Peron’s yard was the first fire of concern, and later that same morning a North Street resident reported that ornamental grass clumps had been burned. Peron lives at the corner of Bates and North streets. On March 15, a man living in a tent along the railroad tracks near Bradford Street — not far from Peron — reported to police that his tent and its contents had been set on fire.
On the other side of the tracks, at 137 King St., a trash barrel was set on fire March 17.
And on March 21, ornamental grass was again burned on North Street, police said.
For Jerry Budgar of Bridge Street, the fires dredge up painful memories. While the Baye fires raged, Budgar served as president of the Ward 3 Neighborhood Association. At the same time he tried to allay public fears, he was caring for his dying mother.
He said more than 500 people showed up in late 2009 for a meeting like the one the city will hold on Monday at 6 p.m. on the second floor of City Hall. Its purpose is to provide citizens with as much information as is available and allow them to ask questions.
“There was terror in the streets,” he said Saturday, sitting at his kitchen table and looking back. “The fires were as traumatic an event as you could have in a neighborhood.”
By day Budgar fielded calls from neighbors and by night he kept watch through the blinds, he said. His mother, who was bedridden and unable to walk, was terrified someone would set the house on fire and she would be powerless to keep from burning alive. Budgar said he’ll never forgive Baye for infusing his mother’s last days with such dread. His mother died about 10 days following the last fire set by Baye.
“Now it’s deja vu all over again,” he said. “It was an awful time, and I’m sorry the ward has to go through it again. I wouldn’t wish it on anybody.”
Budgar said he feels officials in Northampton learned from that history with arson and are rising to the occasion. “I feel very confident (the city) is taking this very seriously,” he said.
Driving around Ward 3, Budgar pointed out houses that have fallen victim to arson over the years. Spotting Lola Reid of Williams Street, Budgar pulled over.
Baye wasn’t the first arsonist to cause damage on this side of town. According to Gazette story files, the neighborhood saw periodic surges in arson dating back to 1980 and then again in 1991. Longtime Ward 3 residents like Budgar and Reid haven’t forgotten any of it.
“Remember when the lumberyard burned down?” Reid asked Budgar, referring to a fire on Hawley Street.
Two of the homes on Reid’s block were hit by fires set by Baye, who is serving a state prison sentence for his crimes. She will likely attend the meeting Monday, but said she’s “not the worrying type.”
“I just figure if it happens, it happens,” she said. “I’m not going to be able to stop it.”
Her friend Rachel Borson of Bixby Court said the neighborhood was still recovering from the fires when she moved here in 2012. “These seem different,” Borson said of the recent fires, adding that they’ve been set back from any buildings.
Some, like Greg Kerstetter of Bradford Street, said the plight of Ward 3 was too long ignored when Baye began setting fires. “For us over here they were adding up and no one was paying attention,” Kerstetter said.
“We were always literally and figuratively on the other side of the tracks,” agreed Budgar, who seems to know everybody who lives in the ward.
Both Budgar and Kerstetter praised the city for responding quickly this time around. “Kudos to NPD for canvassing the neighborhood,” Kerstetter said.
Kerstetter and Budgar went back and forth over the comparisons between the last spate of fires and the most recent ones.
“The trash can — that’s what had me freaking out,” Budgar said to Kerstetter. “That’s what Baye did.”
Back in the car, Budgar pointed out the area where Day Avenue meets North and Bates streets, where the recent fires are concentrated.
Standing outside of her house on the corner of the three streets, Maggie Miller stared at the blackened earth on Peron’s lawn, where ornamental grasses once stood. “It’s pretty terrifying,” said Miller, 17. “I feel like I’ve seen this before.”
Peron said the Baye fires inspired her and her wife to install a fire security system in the house, which is helping her to feel more secure. “It’s worrisome,” she said. “I do feel more vigilant.”
Peron said she’s concerned that the fires won’t stop until someone is apprehended. “Somebody’s going to get hurt,” she said.
Budgar nodded, his mouth pinched in thought. “That’s the fear,” he said.
In a wooded patch by the railroad tracks behind the Walgreens drug store on King Street, Christina Goddard talked about the fires from the new tent she calls home. The previous tent she lived in with her boyfriend, she said, was the one that burned March 15.
“It broke my heart,” Goddard said of the blaze, which claimed her home and all of her possessions.
She said in the days since the incident she and her boyfriend have been questioned by local police, state police, and the fire marshal.
She said she doesn’t know anything about the other fires, but suspects her tent was set afire by another homeless woman seeking money to buy heroin.
“It was about jealousy and territory,” she said, adding that she’s new to the area. “I’m just trying to survive.”
Jim Nash, president of the Ward 3 Neighborhood Association, said he started asking Ward 3 Councilor Ryan O’Donnell about the possibility of a community meeting when concerns were mounting — and information was lacking.
Nash said Baye started out by setting fires like this. Then, car fires and porch fires escalated to home fires. “I think there’s a lot of people that are really concerned about it,” Nash said. “For many people who lived through the fires back then — there were many years of suspicious fires leading up to that evening.”
O’Donnell said he’s expecting a high turnout for the meeting Monday evening. He said Assistant Northwestern District Attorney Matthew Thomas will be there to answer questions, as well as Police Chief Jody Kasper and Fire Chief Duane Nichols.
“I have confidence in our public safety personnel in that they take this very seriously and I take this very seriously and the investigation is being treated with equal seriousness,” O’Donnell said.
Laurie Loisel, a former Gazette editor who is now director of community outreach and education at the DA’s office, said she’ll be at the meeting both as a representative of the office and as a Ward 3 resident.
“The fires are being taken seriously and I lived in the neighborhood when people died near the fairgrounds, so I know why people feel frightened,” said Loisel.
The community plays an important role in catching an arsonist, said Lawrence Brandoli, owner of Tetra Fire and Explosion Investigations of Wilbraham. Brandoli said he investigated two of the properties Baye set on fire.
“Leave the lights on and don’t make it convenient for whoever’s doing this,” he said. “Arson is a crime of stealth — they tend to like dark places.”
Amanda Drane can be contacted at adrane@gazettenet.com.